1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure is related to the field of child safety restraints. Specifically, to restraints which can detect the orientation and report various conditions relating to the status of the child and restraint in a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Caregivers of children often must travel with those children in a vehicle. Because the safety belts preinstalled in most vehicles are sized for use with an adult, those safety belts are generally unsuitable and dangerous for use with children. To remedy this, infant, toddlers, and young children use specially designed safety restraints in the form of a “car seat” or “child seat,” a separate chair placed in the car on top of the vehicular seat and attached to the vehicle, generally using either specially designed connectors for that purpose, such as the LATCH system, or the vehicle's preinstalled safety belts.
However, the majority of vehicular child safety restraint seats, popularly called “child seats,” are not properly installed, and an improperly installed seat exposes the child to increased risk of injury. Although child seat manufacturers and automobile companies provide detailed instructions on how to install child seats in vehicles, users routinely install the child seats at improper angles, with incorrect tension on the restraining belts between the seat and the vehicle, and/or with incorrect tension on the restraining belts between the seat and the child.
Some seats include a mechanical level (such as a ball or bubble level) to aid the user in installing the seat at the proper angle, but bubble levels work on just one plane of orientation and these levels orient along only one dimension, typically pitch—the forward-to-back orientation of the seat, and the proper installation of a child seat can require that multiple planes of orientation be adjusted. For example, the side-to-side angle of the child seat (“roll”) and the rotational orientation (“slip”) also should be properly set. Bubble levels also cannot provide feedback on belt tension. Further, even where a child seat initially is installed properly the child seat may be jostled or shifted and tension may loosen over time.
Further, as the child uses the seat, the belt tension and orientation will change over time and needs to be corrected. Further, the proper tension and orientation may also change as the child grows and ages. Busy caregivers rarely stop to check seat installation, and thus a seat that was properly installed in the first instance will, over time, become improperly installed.
Further, children, particularly infants, have basic needs that the caregiver must supply, such as proper temperature, dryness and cleanliness. When the vehicle is in motion, the caregiver should not divert attention from operating the vehicle to check these conditions, as doing so poses a danger of a vehicular accident. Further, certain conditions simply cannot be checked from the driver's chair, such as the temperature in the back of a minivan, or where a toddler being potty-trained has wet herself.
Further, there are certain dangerous conditions which require multiple layers of alerting in case the primary caregiver does not respond. For example, where an infant is left in the vehicle, multiple individuals should be notified to maximize the chances of a rapid response to rescue the child.
Ordinary use of a family vehicle tends to dislodge the child seat from proper orientation and tension over time. The insertion and removal of cargo in the vehicle may bump the child seat, the child using the seat may move, or passengers in the vehicle may climb over and around the seat or use it for leverage in entering, exiting, or moving about in the vehicle. In the fast-paced life of a modern family, users may not have time to assess the problem, to say nothing of correcting it, again placing the children at increased risk of injury. The existing bubble levels provide no means for notifying the user that the child seat orientation is unsafely out of alignment, or that the belt tension is too loose.
Further, in the fast-paced life of a family, children using the child seat may be hastily buckled into their child seats, and the buckles may not latch properly. Also, older children often learn how to undo the safety restraints in the child seat, and may clandestinely unclasp or unbuckle themselves without the vehicle operator or passengers noticing. This again poses increased risk to the child.